The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-15
The South.

The Chicago Journal of Commerce for
June 8, Gsvotes three columns,,t TO the sub
ject now popular with all industrial
writer's under the caption THE New En-
pire to the South" 1t is devoted prin-
cipally to the agricultural opportunities
afforded by the Southern States where,
the writer claims, land can be bought
cheaper than anywhere else in the
world. He shows the enormous diff
ference in the valuation of the
North and the South, in the first
case $30, $40 per square mile. in the sec
ond 81 800 per square mile and argues
that this difference arises from the want
of an energetic, systematic attention to
the development of the natural resources
of the country.
1t is the awakening to this need and
the efforts to meet it that constitute the
New South, as it has been called. 1t is the
same people with the same qualities, the
same virtues and faults that it has been
at any time before. The population of
the South is less modified by immigra-
ton than the North, the new
settlers being mostly from the older
families of the North, of American
stock, and the changes in the character
of the people have been few. The
New South differs from the Old
South as it was after the war, by the
new hope which has sprung up in the
minds of the people, the realization
that it has resources which should make
it one of the most prosperous of the peo-
Piles of the earth. 1t is this new spirit
that the North, with the scales dropping
from its eyes, calls the New South, as
though there had been a recreation
In this age all new countries are de
velOped by the overflow of the capital
and energy of the old countries where
population is crowded, competition Sc
we're and every means of adding to the
aggregate capital of the community is
sought out. To this continent the North
ern States constitute that reservoir of
capital. Until recently it was the East
ern States that possessed the most float
ing capital and New York City was
the chief banker of America. The great
grain crops could only be removed from
the Northwest to- the seabOard by the aid
of New York, and late in the summer
there invariably set in flow of money
Westward. which started the stream of
products of the agricultural regions
Eastward 1t was only a few years ago
that it was announced that Chicago was
able to furnish the capital for this an
nual movement, and that the demands
on New York for that purpose
We're steadily growing less. Capital
must seek employment and will flow to
to that quarter where it can meet with
conditions favorable to an increase. The
West being amply supplied with capital
the overflow must go elsewhere.
At present it is the development of the
mineral riches of the States immediately
north of us that is engaging the atten-
ton of of Northern capital. But the
agricultural resources and capabilities of
the region are engaging more
attention yearly. 1t is known that
the South is capable of raising a
greater variety of crops than the
| Northern climate will allow and that
many fiber plants of great value can be
grown which would add rapidly to the
wealth of the country. More sugar
could be produced and will be, now that
the experiments with the diffusion pro-
cess show that almost all the saccharine
matter in the cane can be utilized and
very much more produced for the same
amount of cultivation than under the
old wasteful method of extracting the
! juice. Stock raising on large
scale is proposed and already some
| stock farms of great extent are to be
seen in Louisiana and other Gulf States.
The activity in opening new lines of ag-
ricultural production is increasing and
| such articles as this in the Chicago
| Journal of Commerce serve to draw at
| tention to the great field which lies open
to the employment of capital. Every
! part of the South is sure to feel the in
fluence of this accelerated growth. Ii
can not be confined to State or two.
All development of the South benefits
each Southern State in time.
|